Michigan AG charges 11 over U-M protests, counterprotest

• Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is charging 11 people involved in connection with Israel-Hamas war protests at U-M
• Several charges stem from individuals’ alleged response to police when police shut down an encampment in May
• An investigation into demonstrators visiting university regents’ homes is ongoing

Attorney General Dana Nessel is charging 11 people in relation to spring demonstrations at the University of Michigan, including protesters and counterprotesters, her office announced Thursday. 

The charges follow months of drama at the Ann Arbor campus, where pro-Palestinian students and community members have held demonstrations, disrupted graduation events and staged an encampment on the Diag to protest the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

In announcing the charges, Nessel’s office said they “are not predicated on the content or subject of protected speech.” 

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Nine of the charges, filed Wednesday in 15th District Court, stem from how the defendants allegedly responded when the university shut down the tent-filled encampment on May 21, nearly one month after it began April 22.

Of those nine, seven are charged with trespassing and a count of resisting or obstructing a police office, a felony with a maximum two-year prison term. Nessel’s office said the demonstrators “are alleged to have attempted to halt or push back the police by making direct contact with the officers’ bodies or physically obstruct an arrest.” 

Two others are charged with trespassing, a 30-day misdemeanor, “for failing to vacate the encampment after ample time following clear lawful orders to do so and when the police action to clear the Diag was obviously underway,” according to Nessel’s office.

“The police must be allowed to do their jobs, to secure public safety without unnecessary risks of harm or violence, and these laws are in place to prevent such risks,” Nessel said in a statement. “All students should know, whether on- or off-campus, in a sanctioned demonstration or an unpermitted encampment, disobeying the lawful commands of law enforcement is a crime, and especially so when you use physical force to counter a police action.”

U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Detroit criticized the charging decision by Nessel, a fellow Democrat. 

“This shameful attack on students’ rights will fail,” Tlaib, who has criticized Israel’s actions during the ongoing war, wrote on social media. “Follow the Constitution.”

Nessel’s office is declining to prosecute people for disrupting a separate honors graduation event in March or those involved in a protest outside of the U-M Museum of Art in April. But a separate investigation into demonstrations at U-M regents’ homes is ongoing. 

Nessel is also charging two people over separate incidents involving a counterprotest staged on the Diag on April 25.

One person is charged with disturbing the peace and attempted ethnic intimidation — punishable by up to one year behind bars — for allegedly kicking over demonstrator flags. Another is charged with two counts of malicious destruction of personal property — a maximum 93-day misdemeanor — for allegedly taking demonstrator flags, breaking two flags and putting them in a nearby garbage can. 

“The right to free speech and assembly is fundamental, and my office fully supports every citizen’s right to free speech under the First Amendment,” Nessel said. 

“However, violent and criminal behavior, or acts that trample on another’s rights, cannot be tolerated. I hope today’s charges are a reminder to everyone who chooses to assemble, regardless of the cause, that the First Amendment does not provide a cover for illegal activity.” 

The U-M protests died down over the summer but resumed in late August, when campus police arrested four people the university alleged were blocking pedestrian traffic and refusing to leave.